Slides in this set

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BACKGROUND The hippocampus is the part of the brain which focuses on spatial orientation and navigation Humans have two hippocampi- left and right The posterior hippocampus has been seen to grow when necessary- For example, small mammals who engage in behaviour requiring spatial memory have an increased volume in their posterior hippocampus Maguire wanted to know if this would be true for humans too... They predicted that the hippocampus would be the most likely brain region to show changes…read more

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BACKGROUND To test this prediction, the researchers decided to use LONDON TAXI DRIVERS as they HEAVILY RELY on SPATIAL NAVIGATION SKILLS in their everyday working lives…read more

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THE KNOWLEDGE· In order for a taxi driver to obtain their license they need to gain `The Knowledge'· This is a detailed knowledge of around 320 routes which covers over 25,000 streets· They learn this through hundreds of hours of research on a small motorbike AND practicing spatial navigation intensively everyday· Maguire wanted to know if their hippocampus has now become larger as a result…read more

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AIM:To find out whether taxidrivers have DIFFERENT brain structures to non taxi drivers…read more

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HYPOTHESIS: Taxi drivers WOULD have a STRUCTURALLY DIFFERENT hippocampus compared to non taxi drivers…read more